On June 27, Sierra Club led a coalition of national conservation organizations, statewide public health advocates, and frontline environmental justice groups in filing a rulemaking petition urging the Illinois Pollution Control Board to adopt three clean vehicle standards that would reduce harmful tailpipe emissions from passenger cars and large trucks in the state. If adopted, these standards would require vehicle manufacturers to deliver increasing numbers of new zero-emission cars, trucks, and buses for sale in Illinois and reduce health-harming pollution from new combustion engines starting in 2027.
Supported by signatures of more than 1,000 Illinois residents, the petition builds on years of statewide advocacy around clean cars and trucks, including Sierra Club-led ozone modeling and coalition actions to urge the Pritzker Administration to adopt the protective vehicle emissions standards. Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program developed the petition and legal theories; recruited allies, experts, and co-counsel; and coordinated supporting efforts across multiple capacities, including campaign, communications, digital strategies, chapter and field staff. Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund, Respiratory Health Association, Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Chicago Environmental Justice Network joined Sierra Club in filing today’s petition.
Roughly 9 million Illinois residents, comprising 71% of the state’s population, live in areas that are designated as failing to meet EPA’s health-based standards for ozone pollution. Pollution from fossil-fuel burning cars and trucks is a major source of this problem. As the nation’s largest freight hub, Chicago is home to an extremely high density of industrial truck traffic—some highways carry over 30,000 trucks each day. Exposure to fossil fuel exhaust can lead to premature death and other devastating health problems, such as asthma, pregnancy complications, and heightened cancer risk. Diesel exhaust impacts have a particularly damaging impact on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in Illinois because of historic policies that systematically funneled industrial expansion into low-income areas and predominantly black and brown neighborhoods.
Transportation is also the state’s largest source of climate pollution, representing over 26% of statewide greenhouse gas emissions. If adopted, these rules will ensure zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) comprise nearly 100% of new passenger vehicle sales in the state by 2035 and will set new vehicle fleet standards to dramatically increase the proportion of electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles on Illinois roads. Through 2050, the proposed rules will avoid more than $22 billion in climate damages.
Sierra Club is represented by Environmental Law Program attorneys Nathaniel Shoaff, Joe Halso, and Jim Dennison, with support from Litigation Assistant Emma Szymanski. Illinois Chapter Legal Chair Albert Ettinger and Northwestern School of Law attorney Rob Weinstock are co-counseling the case.